For solar businesses, attracting solar leads is a no-alternative path to increasing revenues and successful development, with 61% of marketers considering lead generation their main task.
At the same time, solar lead generation requires significant financial resources…unless you are hitting the segment of free solar leads acquired from earned media and organic traffic channels.
Source: GIPHY
Read on to learn more about how to get free solar leads and how much solar leads cost.
Everything You Need to Know About Solar Panel Leads
Solar panel leads are individuals or businesses who have expressed their purchase intent by filling out a form, registering on the website, subscribing to your newsletters, etc. In all cases, you’ve got their contact information.
Here are the major types of solar leads:
| Cold solar energy leads | Individuals or businesses who are unaware or have very limited knowledge of your business. Perhaps they have visited your website but have not yet shown a clear interest in your products/services. |
| Warm leads for solar | Individuals or businesses who have already shown interest in the product/service and have submitted an inquiry but have not made a final decision to purchase from your company. They may still be considering options from competitors or waiting for discounts. |
| Hot solar reviews leads | Individuals or businesses who are interested in your brand and are determined to purchase the product or service here and now. |
To increase the effectiveness of lead generation for solar, it is necessary to actively attract cold leads and warm them up to a purchase. Of course, not every cold lead will ultimately become warm or hot, but this is something you should work on.
It’s also worth mentioning that there are residential and commercial solar leads, an important differentiation to consider before developing your marketing strategies. For example, commercial solar leads are mostly B2B clients whom you can effectively draw from, say, LinkedIn, whereas residential leads might appreciate easygoing content on visual platforms like Instagram and TikTok.
How To Calculate Solar Leads Cost Correctly
Suppose you’ve launched an advertising campaign across social media, contextual advertising, and partner websites. How do you calculate whether you invested enough, too little, or too much? Which channels brought in the most clients and profit?
To analyze the effectiveness of the advertising, you need to calculate the per-customer spending while factoring in all clients, including those who purchased solar panels and those who haven’t made a purchase yet.
A user who performs the desired action is a lead, and the money spent on guiding them to that action is the CPL (cost per lead).
Here’s how to calculate your CPL:
CPL = advertising expenses/number of quality leads
For example, if you spent $1,000 on advertising and obtained 20 leads, then your CPL would be $50.
Here’s how to calculate your customer acquisition cost (CAC):
CAC = advertising and sales expenses/number of acquired customers
For example, if you spent $1,000 on advertising and sales and obtained 50 customers, then your CAC would be $20.
Knowing how much you spent to acquire a customer and how much money they brought to the company, you can identify the channels for obtaining the best solar leads.
Here’s how to get free solar leads or at least decrease your CAC:
- Reduce the cost per lead
- Look for free or budget-friendly client acquisition methods
Read on to learn more about cost-effective solar lead acquisition for small budgets.
How To Get Solar Leads With a Limited Budget
Attracting free solar leads might be the only way to get clients without spending on marketing campaigns and buying solar leads directly. However, using earned media to generate free solar leads may require another type of investment: time.
For example, if you generate free commercial or free residential solar leads by crafting SEO-optimized content, you may have to wait for several months until Google ranks your blog posts or landing pages.
Below is more on how to find solar leads and not spend a penny:
Establish Partnerships With Other Companies
Collaborating with companies that can supply you with solar leads – developers, repair crews, etc. – is an excellent way to generate solar leads for free. As the first step towards getting free solar leads, get to know representatives of construction companies that might have an interest in you.
For example, builders with whom you have agreed to collaborate may recommend you to clients as a reliable contractor. This way, you can get solar leads for free, and they might already be warm leads.
Create an Online Community
The world of social media is your oyster when it comes to generating free solar leads. From TikTok to Instagram to Facebook, you can promote your social media channels by creating active communities of likeminders.
Even seemingly irrelevant media like Telegram can be effectively used to share news about your company and the alternative energy industry in general, promote your own products, interact with the audience, and more.
Utilize Bulletin Boards and Directories
You can expose your solar panel services on bulletin boards and directories at low cost or even for free, and your advertisement will be indexed by search engines so you can get free solar leads.
Do Cold Outreach
Cold outreach is not the best way to get solar leads, as it has significant downsides: strenuous database collection, labor-intensive outreach, and many irritated clients who are not interested in your business.
However, cold outreach is still free and effective for generating solar leads, inviting you to play the game of numbers. The more potential clients you contact, the more of them you can convert.
Utilize Content Marketing
Content marketing is an excellent way to attract online solar leads by demonstrating your expertise and building long-term trust relationships with the audience. If you provide customers with something valuable, they will be willing to share their contact information with you or take other targeted actions: subscribe to a newsletter, follow you on social media, etc.
Use Lead Magnets
Lead magnets are another effective lead generation channel for solar companies, as they appeal to the customer’s psychology. FOMO, reciprocity, and loss aversion can be insanely good at generating solar leads for free and triggering conversions on the spot.
Here’s how to get free solar leads with lead magnets:
-
- Discounts. Motivate users by offering bonuses on the first and subsequent purchases. Seasonal and holiday discounts (remember Black Friday?) can generate tons of free solar leads, but it might make sense to ensure clients can get extra benefits throughout the year.
- Free consultations. Offer potential customers a free consultation with a solar expert. This will help them get useful information and clarify the possibilities of using solar energy for their needs. On your side, you might get a chance to work with this lead to a purchase.
- Online calculator. Anyone looking for solar panels is naturally interested in calculating solar energy potential, savings, and return on investment. Then, based on the calculations, you can offer personalized recommendations.
Generate Free Solar Leads: Disadvantages
| Undetermined intent | Free solar leads are less qualified compared to leads for which you have paid. It’s harder to plan your lead acquisition strategies for free solar leads, as you can’t always make an educated guess about what leads will react to your content and how. |
| High competition | Since free solar appointment leads are available to everyone, the competition is tough. You need solid nurturing and sales strategies to snatch free solar leads from the hands of competitors. |
| Less control over lead generation sources | Using free channels, you cannot accurately know where the leads are coming from and how well they match your target audience. |
Free solar leads are usually more cost-effective in the long run, especially for small and startup companies, but it is important to consider the drawbacks and all possible risks.
How To Get Leads for Solar and Be Confident in Their Quality
Buying solar leads is the best solution for attracting target customers and increasing sales volume. Not only can you choose a target audience that suits your products, but you can save time and resources for strategic business decisions.
Searching for the best place to buy solar leads?
Choose Profitise.
We offer a wide selection of solar leads from dozens and thousands of affiliates, including high-intent live transfer solar leads.
Register on Profitise as an affiliate to get assistance in generating free solar and access to generous advertisers. Register as an advertiser to tap into our vast pool of solar leads for sale from matching affiliates.
Frequently Asked Questions
How to get free solar leads?
You can generate free leads by:
- Participating in online communities and forums
- Offering discounts and free consultations
- Creating valuable content
- Using social media platforms
- Collaborating with other companies
Where to buy solar leads?
You can buy solar leads from lead generation companies and affiliate networks.
How to buy solar leads?
First, research lead generation companies and affiliate networks based on the type of solar leads you want to get. Second, narrow it down to several optimal traffic sources to avoid overcommitting to a single lead provider.
